T.C. Boyle on Writing in Gloomy Weather About Climate Catastrophe

Authors in the Tent is a professionally filmed series of interviews with established and emerging authors conducted in a tent Ona Russell purchased during the pandemic. Inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron and the 1001 Arabian Nights, the tent—elemental, ancient, and ubiquitous—serves as a magical backdrop for literary conversation.

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In this latest episode Ona Russell talks with T.C. Boyle, author of Blue Skies (and many other novels) about writing climate change and the blurry line between dystopian fiction and reality.

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T.C. Boyle is a novelist and regular contributor to The New Yorker. He has published eighteen novels, including World’s End and The Tortilla Curtain, and twelve collections of short stories. A Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California, he lives in Santa Barbara.

Ona Russell holds a PhD in literature from UC San Diego where she also taught for many years. She is author of three award-winning historical mysteries and the recently released Son of Nothingness: A Novel of Appearances.